Before Jesus died, someone performed a religious ritual to cleanse Jesus in preparation of the seventh day — the Sabbath, according to Jewish Law, to wit:
“A clean person shall take hyssop, and dip it in the water, and sprinkle it upon the tent, and upon all the vessels, and upon the persons that were there, and upon him that touched a bone, or one slain, or one dead, or a grave.” (Num 19:8)
The ‘one’ that would do that considered himself clean and
Jesus soiled. One would do just that when Jesus was about to die. The water in
a hyssop reed, which is much like bamboo but not rigid, would hold the water,
albeit it was a weak vessel. Matthew wrote of an unknown person that performed
that ceremonial cleansing on Jesus. It would be the ultimate way to humiliate
Jesus. Look what Matthew wrote:
And straightway one of them ran, and took a sponge, and filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink. (Mat 27:48)
Immediately before Jesus was to die, one person thought it
expedient to purify Jesus (Num 19:9) before He was slain. The ritual was to be
performed on one already slain. Jesus was considered as good as dead before he was
nailed to the Cross. There was no turning back. Ironically, Jesus would not
stay dead; perhaps one thing that contributed to his resurrection was because
the ritual had not been done correctly.
Before the “sponge” is considered, examine the “reed.” It
was likely a hyssop reed that was common to that place. It is much like bamboo
but flexible; it can bend freely in the wind. It could make a nice whip, or
like bamboo, a drinking cup for drinking clean water.
That person ran because the time was waning, and the ceremony
was for the seventh day which was quickly approaching since it was late Friday.
The seventh day was about to start so that person had to act quickly to not
break the ritual.
The sponge was imbued with vinegar and placed atop the bamboo.
Water would seep into the ‘cup’ and the reed would act like a funnel to provide
for Jesus a drink. He would not touch the sponge, but the reed would drip the
water down into His mouth.
However, on this occasion, it was not clean water as it
should have been, but sour wine mixed with water. Wine, in those days, was
full of residual pulp that contained fermentation. It was not truly wine but soured
grape vinegar mixed with water.
Symbolically that concoction was the salvation of Jesus, or perhaps a mockery of salvation; John wrote the following:
This is He
that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ, not by water only, but by
water and blood. And it is the Spirit that bears witness because the Spirit is
truth. (1 John 5:6)
Jesus would be the ‘cup’ that spilled blood and water from
His belly as he was pieced after He died.
One of the soldiers
with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water. (John 19:34)
Longinus performed the cleansing ritual, according to Law
when He pierced the side of Jesus after Jesus had died.
The one who brought Him the sponge on a reed, brought Jesus
soured wine mixed with water. Wine represents the blood of Christ (Mat 26:28).
The water represents the Holy Spirit of Jesus flowing from the belly of Him. The
crucifixion of Jesus was serving mankind living water as He told the woman at
the well, that “He (Himself) would have given you living water” (John 4:10).
The sponge may have been a real sponge full of whatever
water was at hand to mix with the sour wine, along with its unclean dregs — the
particles of fermentation, or unclean fungi. Real sponges were living organisms at that time, by then dead and dry to absorb liquids. The sponges would have been considered unclean themselves, and the ceremony would be more for the cleansing of the dead organism than for Jesus who was still alive!
The ritual sacrifice made by that one was not efficacious
for many reasons: it was done wrongly in time, the elements were impure, and it
was done in mockery. However, Longinus, the soldier, did the ritual correctly
although he was a Roman who knew nothing of the ritual, in all likelihood.
David wrote about the Savior, “Purge Me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash Me, and I shall be whiter than snow” (Psalm 51:7)
The first one did that wrongly. He endeavored, not to purge
Jesus of uncleanness, but imbue Him with it. He was about to give Jesus dirty
water and soured grape juice with dregs having impurities.
His performance of ritual cleansing was not efficacious, and
even if he meant well; he got it wrong! The soldier, Longinus, did not mean well,
but got it right.
There is no record of the sponge bearing one understanding that Jesus was God, but the soldier saw it differently:
When they came to
Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs, but one of
the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood
and water. And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knows
that He saith true, that you might believe. (John
19:33-35)
Nobody killed the perfect sacrifice.
The nails did not kill Jesus, the people did not, the lance did not, and neither
did the bone crusher. Jesus as God sacrificed Himself. There was no other Way! You
might say, “No, the Father did that,” but the Father was in Jesus. Jesus was
just the Image of God that God toppled, leaving the Holy Ghost quite well who
was the inner Image of Jesus and God Himself.
The Son was there, the Father was
there, and so was the Holy Spirit; God was there in One Person with the Phantom
of God within and the Power that left Him to provide enough Virtue to heal the
nations (Rev 22:2).
picture credit spongeon; "Live Sponge."
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